Busy Monday, December 19

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write Blog
• Clean House
• Go to work
• Plan Menu
• Get Groceries
• Gift Exchange with friends at my home

Menu

• Mon - Rotisserie Chicken, mashed potatoes, veggie 
• Tue - Tacos
• Wed - Spaghetti w/meatballs
• Thur - Grilled Cheese w/Tomato Soup
• Fri - Pizza
• Sat - Ham & Potato Soup in Bread Bowls
• Sun - Pre-made pulled pork, chips, leftovers. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Work M-Thr for myself & Peter. Kids are on Winter Break
• Make cookies & other sweets
• Wrap gifts
• Deliver more gifts
• Clean house
• Wed. Brie has a secret santa with some friends
• Thursday Brie has a counseling appt
• Thursday Company Christmas Party @ work
• Friday suppose to be meeting with the ladies over Johanna's wedding stuff some more we will see how I'm doing on time. 

Last Week

Okay last week I suppose will fall into the last several weeks since I've been bad about getting posts up and I apologize about that it is a busy time of year. 

We will start with yesterday.
Yesterday (Sunday) I spent the day in the city about an hour away with Johanna and Courtney as we helped Johanna find a wedding dress and shoes for her wedding in a couple weeks. Yup right down to the wire. We went out for dinner and over all wasn't a bad time at all though Johanna's 3 month old, Evelynn got very sick at one point and there weren't any extra changes of clothes in the diaper bag so we had to go to Once Upon a Child so we could buy her a new outfit and then we got a bit lost trying to find it but it all worked out. A dress was found that Johanna loved along with shoes. Things are coming together. I was exhausted and passed out about 8:30!

Saturday, I went shopping with Johanna to help her out and then came home and did some baking before going to a potluck where we had lots of fun and played games and listened to the tornado sirens... I'm not joking. I got home and we had company over so I didn't get to bed until after 1 am. 

Friday, I had the Ladies Christmas Dinner (Ladies from work) I had to go to at a local restaurant and we did gift exchanges. I got myself a nice steak dinner because it had been a very stressful day at work in fact I even worked 15 minutes off the clock trying to get stuff done and so after all that I went to Starbucks and vegged with a coffee for a little bit before going home and getting ready for the dinner. Friday was also the last day of school for the kids and sadly Katherine had a very bad day and failed her math test because she's been sick and coughing so very hard that even on Saturday when she was at the Marksmanship Club her aim was really far off and her grouping was very loose.
Brielle went out with a friend Friday for dinner so she was gone for the evening and didn't get back home until 10. I was pretty much already asleep when she got home.
Oooh that reminds me okay so I go to this dinner and I'm stressed out due to work and the kids so I have a nice dinner and a glass of wine and then on the way home I decided I don't feel like going home yet so I swing by Johanna's which is on the way home anyways. I'm sitting out in front of her house in my car texting her to see if she was up for some company because I didn't want to just come unannounced and so as I'm waiting for a response I hear this sudden bang against my driver door and scraping. It's Johanna's huge dog! So I quickly get out and catch the dog and bring her up to the house invitation be damned I had her dog at that point. I guess it's a good thing I stopped by right when I decided to.

Thursday, I had my last music class for the year which is kind of sad but we enjoyed it. Earlier that day I had to pull Katherine out of school for an eye appt which is why she had to take her Math test on Friday. We got her eyes checked out and her new glasses ordered and then went down to Hallmark and Kmart to do some more shopping. She was already coughing really bad by this point so we also picked up some medicine. 

Wednesday, we had Brielle's Orchestra Concert. They played wonderfully. 

Tuesday, we had Katherine's Band and Choir concerts. She did so well and later her Choir teacher commented to me about how expressive she was with her singing. I took a lot of video and apparently only this one picture. 

Monday, I had class in the evening and then just normal stuff like Lunch with Peter. I did some shopping and Blacky went to the groomer. I know I did some other stuff too but I really can't remember what now.

We are now hitting fuzzy territory so to remember I'm hitting up my calendar and my photos. 

12/13 Peter gives me an early Christmas present of an embroidery machine.

 12/10 Brielle went down to take the ACT 

12/10 Katherine's Marksmanship Club

12/9 Katherine's School Dance

12/7 Went and saw Brian Setzer Orchestra

12/4 Got the inside decorated for the holidays

Turkey Pot Pie

Ingredients

• 2 piece Pie Crust aka a Top & Bottom either purchased or make your own.
• 1/3 Cup Butter
• 1/3 Cup Chopped Onion
• 1/3 Cup Flour
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Pepper
• 14 ounces Chicken Broth - Using Chicken Bouillon to make a 'broth' works just fine as that's what I do most years
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 2 1/2 Cups Shredded Turkey
• 2 Cups Veggies - I do 1/2 Corn and 1/2 Peas

Step one:

Melt Butter in pan and cook onions until they are soft. Make sure to stir often.




Step two:

Add flour, salt and pepper to onion/butter mixture.
Stir until well blended.








Step three:

Add milk and broth.
Stir often until mixture thickens.








Step four:

Add veggies to mixture.
Add turkey to mixture.
Combine evenly.







Step five:

Pour into deep dish pie dish. (Mine is super deep my supposed deeper dishes for when I do pie cannot hold this you need a serious deep dish. If you used pre-made pie dough then I suggest rolling it out a little thinner so it fits better.)

 Step 6:

Cover pie with top pie crust and cut slits. The slits are needed!









Step 7:

Cover edges with foil.
Cook for 35 minutes at 425°F
Remove foil from edges and continue to cook for 15 minutes.

Step 8:

Remove from oven and let cool 5-10 minutes.

Busy Monday, November 28

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Drive Brielle to School
• Write Blog - In progress
• Menu - Um yeah didn't happen
• Grocery Shopping
• Lunch with Peter
• Grocery Shopping
• B-12 Shot @ Hospital
• Seperate out left over Thanksgiving meats - If you are like what the heck? We had turkey and ham left. The turkey needed to be removed from the bones (legs and such) and shredded to be used or frozen and the ham needed to be trimmed and cubed. It was time consuming. 
• Recycle Candles
• Make Pot Pie
• Music Class

Menu

• Turkey Pot Pie - Today (recipe to come later I snapped a couple pictures with my phone)
• Going to try this Turkey Cordon Bleu recipe. 
• I found steak on clearance so steak is now on the menu
• ??? We will see what we have and figure something out. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Work & School normal week schedule
• Tuesday
• Jr. Homemakers Club - 4-H
• Wednesday
• Pest Control inside treatment
• Thursday
• Music Class
• Friday
• Peter's Card Game
• Saturday
• Stitch 'n Bitch 2-5pm
• Downtown Holiday Stroll 1-8pm (Christmas Tree lighting at 5pm so I will have to leave SnB early)
• Sunday
• Free?

Last Week
Okay so this is really gross to look at. This past week I was cleaning and I do mean CLEANING. Can you tell I hadn't gotten under my fridge for awhile. It's amazing where grossness hides! 

I also took some time to seed a few peppers but I need to seed some more of them so next year I can get these varieties again. 





Tuesday, Johanna came over to help because she wanted to learn how to make Lefse and all day Wednesday we worked on it. 

I also got the pumpkin pies done. 
 










Thanksgiving Day Pictures. 

Saturday we had 4-H Marksmanship Club. Katherine got to hold the flags for the pledge of allegiance and  the 4-H pledge.

Katherine also got to fire a 22 this time. She did really awesome and was totally giddy when we left because she got so much praise. It was very cold out there though so afterwards we stopped by Starbucks because we needed to warm back up.

Sunday we went to the Circus with some friends. We haven't been to a circus since Brielle was about 3 years old aka before Katherine was born and that was a little tent circus. 








Sunday I got some seeds started that I got from a person in a growing group I'm apart of on Facebook. We will see if they grow they should do something in about 2 weeks time. 

I also spend Sunday and today recycling candles. Melting down old ones and getting them into a shape and size I can reuse later. I'm mainly doing this because a friend wants to use my candle jars for her wedding decor as we are doing a wedding on what seems like a $50 budget so I'm pulling my hair out somewhat as MoH. But we'll get it all figured out we've got a month (yes a month again can I strangle the bride or is that considered impolite?) 

Busy Monday, November 21

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Clean House

I almost forgot to put this up here. Here it is already 3pm. I've been busy trying to clean house. 

This was my To-Do List for Today. I'm not sure I'm going to get all of it done so looks like some will bleed into tomorrow. 

Menu

• Ribs
• Chicken
• Pulled Pork
• Thanksgiving
• Just count the rest of the days as Thanksgiving too as we normally have left overs one day may be a Turkey Pot Pie

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• I'm on vacation this week
• Peter works Mon-Wed
• Kids go to school Mon-Tue
• Clean
• Cook
• Survive
• Today was suppose to be my dentist appt... I came down sick like really sick about 3 or 4 days ago. I'm on the mend today but I'm still a mouth breather so I had to cancel that. 
• Tuesday - Orthodontist Appt for Brielle
• Saturday
• Marksmanship Club for Katherine
• Birthday Party @ Friend's house

Last Week

We had STEM club last week where the girls made Hydrophobic sand. 













We had the Christmas Parade on Saturday. I didn't get any pictures but I took like 60 minutes of Video. I don't think we need that up here. Katherine had to show up with the rest of the band to practice 12pm we picked her up at 6:30 after the parade. 

Sunday, Brielle went and volunteered and I went and bought Peter a new computer desk. Well a new to us computer desk. Actually that reminds me that last week I bought a new Dyson for myself because I was getting it through a friend so I got it wicked cheap so I sold off my old Dyson which is how I turned around and bought Peter a desk. It's a very nice desk too IMO though the house has kind of thrown up from him unloading his old one it's amazing how much stuff he had stashed around it. He did try to pick it all up but we are still kind of in recovery from that. 

That's a quick run down. It's cold as heck outside though the house is burning up since I've had the oven on cleaning to burn off whatever soap I might not have gotten and to get any weird smells out. I put ribs in the crockpot and I'll transfer them over to the oven to broil them closer to dinner. I figured something in the crockpot would be best with me spending the day cleaning.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving! 

Busy Monday - Late Edition

Monday & Tuesday

• Monday turned into a shopping day. I had to finish shopping for Thanksgiving now all I need is brown and serve rolls because I've had those go bad on me before so I'm holding off and a few bottles of wine. One of the ladies that is coming with her family is bringing the sweet potatoes thankfully.
  I ended up going to three stores and the sad thing is I had already purchased much of Thanksgiving dinner the week before on another sale. I also had to stock up on meats though for the house because we do have to eat something prior to Thanksgiving. Now after Thanksgiving it is just a lot of rehash of the same foods. 

• Tuesday:
• Work
• Nap - I always need an hour afternoon nap these days for some reason. I walk in the house with the best intentions and then I just pass out. 
• 4:30 Brielle had an appointment with the optometrist. I normally take them every other year even though I know we should go every year but Brielle broke her glasses so was wearing an old set. I guess it is a good thing we went through one of her eyes changed prescription again.
  I set up an appointment for Katherine though sadly I have to yank her out of school for it but I love their optometrist and prefer sending the kids there instead of to some place like eyemart.   
• Peter fixed the grilled cheese & tomato soup. Kat helped some with buttering bread and when I got home I helped too though he took care of the majority thankfully. 
• 5:30 Johanna (my friend who is getting married) stopped by with her kids apparently I had made arrangements to go over wedding stuff because she pushed the wedding date to Jan. 7th! So we are in a bit of a scramble. I had totally forgotten this. 
• 5:45 I run out the door to get the kids to the library for their Anime Club. Thankfully at 7 Peter went to go get the kids picked up so Johanna and I could continue going over wedding stuff. 
• Around 7:30 Johanna & her kids go home. We tell our kids to finish homework and get ready for bed.  

Menu

• Monday was Chicken & Rice that was held over from the prior week.
• Tuesday was Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
• Wednesday (Today) will be Spaghetti
• Thursday I think I'm going to change to pork tenderloin w/mashed potatoes and broccoli 
• Friday Pizza
• Saturday Lloyd's pulled pork & chips -or- eat out 
• Sunday -- Unknown. I have lots of food around the house though so it will be something from the house. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Wednesday (Today) - 
• Work/School
• I need to pick up two cans of WD-40 after work
• 4:30 4-H
• Thursday - 
• 7:15 Peter needs to be at the Middle School for All Pro-Dad's. It's a class they give with free breakfast about once a month on parenting and getting dad's involved. 
• Work/School
• Appt with Gloria has been canceled she's in the Hospital so will be rescheduled later. 
• Open day?
• Friday - 
• Work/School
• Peter has his card game at 6:30 he should be home around 11pm
• Saturday - 
• Brielle Volunteers at Humane Society in the Morning
• 12 pm Katherine has to be at the High School with the rest of band as the Middle School band practices with the High School for the Christmas Parade that day. 
• Christmas Parade
• 6:30 Pick Katherine up from the High School
• Sunday - 
• Brielle Volunteers down at the Humane Society. 
• Clean house!!!

Last Week
Hard to believe it was only last week that I voted. 

It's hard to believe how this election has gone.

I'm still watching facebook and shaking my head. 

I'm very worried for the years to come with the state our country is in. 

I am very thankful for my family, my friends, my job and my home. 

After work that day Brielle had an orthodontist appt. Nothing to report just a check in with how things were going with her new mouth equipment. 

Wednesday was Peter's Birthday. It got a bit stressful because we found out Kat lost a lot of work for school so sadly things weren't as happy go lucky as one would hope. 

In other news we started printing lego style wreaths. I'm hoping to sell a couple to recoup plastic cost but we will see. 

Last week I also got a Fitbit Blaze. My pedometer died and that meant for the last several months I haven't been earning points on Humana. Thankfully we had enough humana points that my fitbit cost us nothing out of pocket. 

Saturday we went to the Library for Retrogaming day with Katherine. Brielle had stayed the night at a friend's house Friday night so she wasn't home yet.
We then went to a last minute birthday party and met up with Brielle there and spent the afternoon bowling.
Saturday night we had guests over to play cards.

Sunday truthfully I forget what we were doing. I played a couple hands of cards with Peter and I think I was trying to clean most of the day. Brielle went to the movies with a friend. I think that was really the jiff of that day. 

Alrighty that's my late post. I need to run to work! 

Busy Monday, November 7

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Peter & Girls work/school
• Drive Brielle into School
• Write Blog
• Make Menu / Grocery List
• Lunch with Peter
• Grocery Shopping
• Finish making final decisions and writing them down for local elections. 
• Clean kitchen
• Laundry
• Make pumpkin puree perhaps pumpkin pie if enough time from non-sugar pumpkins. This is a bit of an experiment I'm wanting to do. 
• I have Orchestra Class tonight

Menu

• Hot Dogs (Chips or French Fries ... Chips are planned later this week but we just had french fries so we will take a vote tonight)
• Trying Stouffer's Crock Pot meal
• Eat Out for Peter's Birthday
• Chicken & Rice (Brielle Requested)
• Pizza
• Tacos ? - Looking through my cabinets it's not being very inspiring. 
• Hamburgers, Chips & Beans (Katherine requested)

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Work/School for Family
• Tuesday
• Kids no school
• Vote
• My Annual Check-Up with the Doc
• Brielle has an Orthodontist Appt - This over laps most likely so Peter will be taking off early from work. 
• Watch the election results in the evening. This will probably be a very late night. 
• Wednesday
• Peter's Birthday
• Thursday
• Peter has off work
• Peter is to take care of the car tags
• I have Orchestra Class
• Friday
• Peter has off work
• Peter has his card game
• Saturday
• Mt:G (card game) Commander tournament
• Library has Retro Game Day
• Sales, sales and more sales! I'm hoping to hit a few up and flesh out Christmas early since I am short vacation this year. 
• Sunday
• Brielle Volunteer at the Humane Society

Last Week


Monday 
This is quite literally the only picture I got of Halloween this year.
I was being bad and didn't take pictures. It was an odd Halloween. We used my house as a home base because where we normally go the lady had a tombstone fall on her foot (Yes, they were in a graveyard and a tombstone fell on her foot no joke!) and other things happened too.
I made a big pot of chili that went over very well but we didn't get out started trick-or-treating until about 7 o'clock. Perhaps that was too late or perhaps no one was celebrating this year. I'm not really sure but there weren't many houses and there weren't many people out at least in our neighborhood. Peter stayed with the house and sat around a fire with candy and when we got back we learned he didn't have one single trick-or-treater the whole night! 

Tuesday it was a standard day of work and such. Brielle had an orthodontist appointment that day to get a new piece of mouth equipment. Even though the braces are off the treatments continue. I really hope she takes care of her teeth as much work as she's having done. 

Wednesday, it was work and then there was the Junior meeting that night; the meeting was for parents of Juniors. We found out about ACT score goals, where the kids practice ACT scores were at and different scholarships and opportunities. 

Thursday I stayed home from work. I did something to my heal/foot. Like micro tears in the muscle. It hurt! Wednesday night was the worst of the pain but it still wasn't good Thursday. I had the sick leave and I used it because there was no way I was going to accomplish anything at work in that state. I took it easy most the day and tried not to push myself and just give my foot time to rest and recover so I could go back to work on Friday.
We found out that night that they had changed Brielle's school schedule. I didn't know you had to have a driver's permit to be in driver's ed and we hadn't taken Brielle down to do it. Brielle also didn't tell us anything when she found out the week before. The lady on the phone when I talked to them Friday was extremely rude because she's out the door here at the end of this school year and she acted like I was an idiot. The only thing anyone has ever told me is that Brielle had to be 16 that's all I knew. So now we are going to have to look at Summer courses for her to be able to take it because her schedule is so complex there is no other way to fit it in. I have no clue how we are going to figure that one out. Needless to say though I was pretty upset and pretty stressed out when we found that out. The only reason we found out is because we were getting the paperwork done and the test paid for, for Brielle to take an official ACT in December. 

Friday was a pretty typical day. I got back to work though I pushed too hard while there so by the end of the day my foot was starting to really bother me. Peter played cards in the evening and I ended up passing out around 8:30 that night and pretty much stayed asleep. I woke up for a short time probably around 1am and got changed for bed since I passed out in my clothes and then went back to sleep.

Saturday, we dropped Brielle off at the Humane society early that morning and then later that day we took Katherine to her 4-H Marksmanship Club meeting. This was her first official day unlike all the training and informational meetings we had to go to. 

Saturday night, Peter and I went to a friends house and played D&D that evening. I played a Ranger who I named Jane Vanilla Doe. All her rolls for character creation were average aka 10's and her sheet I didn't min max so she was pretty much average in everything. We got a kick out of it with lots of jokes to be made. 

Sunday, everyone stayed home and we cleaned the living room. Sadly after an entire day there is still more to be done but mostly just mine and Peter's desks and I need to put away the Halloween decorations still. Everyone worked hard though and at least we got the furniture moved so we could shampoo the carpet. 

Busy Monday, Oct. 31

Okay I lied it's not October 31st and I didn't even start this on the 31st but hey I need to put something up so let's go over a little of what's going on. So we are in Finals week for the High School which means lots of projects due and lots of tests due. One of these projects due was my eldests daughter's programing project in visual basic for her Principles of Engineering course. Well from the very beginning the teacher said he had seen no one accomplish this and truthfully if we had just a bit more time at about 3am Monday (yes you are reading that right) we started to get on the right path but it was 3am so I let Brielle (my daughter) get some sleep aka 3 hours of sleep. I stayed up until 4:30 am trying to figure out how to fix her program. There were lots of little things but needless to say at about 3:30am I emailed the teacher complaining. By Tuesday a friend mentioned something to me which set me off again so I emailed the school district because I didn't feel students should be set up to fail and I hate that there is no book for the class.
In any case, Monday since I was up until 4:30 am I really was pretty useless. Around 1 pm Johanna and her daughters came over because we were using my house as a base of operations for Halloween but apparently we needed to get out of the house sooner or something because trick-or-treating was dismal around here. We did have a nice fire going in the fire pit. Peter stayed out by the fire to hand out candy though he told us we didn't have a single trick-or-treater and truth be told we didn't see many kids out Monday.
When the girls got home Monday I had them watch Johanna's girls (2 yrs and 8 wks) and we went to the grocery store since I had yet to do that and I needed stuff for chili that night.
It was a gorgeous night I still can't believe how few trick or treaters there were.

Tuesday, I went to work. I dealt with the school district as mentioned up above thankfully Brielle did not 'fail' the assignment unknown to me the teacher fully expected her to succeed but no child was failed if they didn't they just had to give a good presentation. I went to the grocery store and picked up some things since I didn't get to do a week of grocery shopping and then I went to Brielle's school and picked her up after school so I could get her to the Orthodontist for a new piece of mouth equipment. 

Wednesday, it was work again. I went to the grocery store again. I then went to Eyemart to get my glasses fixed and then picked up Blacky from the groomer; Peter had dropped Blacky off in the morning at the groomer.
That evening was a Parents of Juniors meeting so the girls ate ramen and Peter and I went and got served pizza as we learned about all of the opportunities and what colleges are looking for.
Somewhere in that time I messed up my foot or ankle. By time we left that meeting I couldn't walk and for the evening I couldn't walk or move without extreme pain. So I sat and played video games and complained on Facebook to my medically inclined friends to ask what in the world happened.

Here it is Thursday. I've called into work and am going to go get ready to head down to Convenient Care though I doubt there is anything they can do about my foot/ankle. I would like to get back to meijer they have these coupons in the fliers they are beyond awesome so I've been stocking up on stuff but at the moment I'd have to get into one of those motorized carts. I also have my orchestra class tonight. Other than the hobble into the the classroom that shouldn't bother me but I missed the last one because it was on Halloween and kids come first.
I may or may not go to the doctor I haven't left out yet. My foot is getting better slowly as long as I rest it. Been fighting on the phone all morning between Firestone Building Products and Kroger about my injury. I've about had it. 

Menu

• Spaghetti
• Pizza
• ....
• ....

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Friday
• Peter has Cards
• Saturday
• Marksmanship Club for Katherine at the shooting range
• Brielle to Volunteer at the Humane Society
• Potential RPG for Peter and myself in the evening
• Sunday
• Meet with Johanna in the morning to go over wedding stuff

Last Week

Katherine had her band concert. Last year she was on the cornet the teacher moved her to the French Horn this year. According to the teacher she is doing very well especially since the French Horn is so much more difficult. Very proud of my girl.










Directly after the band concert was the Chorus performance. No Katherine did not get her hair dyed she's wearing a wig since they were allowed to wear halloween costumes. 

These were both last Thursday.









Last Friday was the Orchestra Concert. Directly before the Orchestra concert was a quartet that Brielle played in.
Oh wow I didn't cover that last week did I. So out of the blue Wednesday I get an email from Brielle asking if she can stay after school she's been asked to play in a quartet to fill in a space last minute. I didn't know when the quartet was playing or even where.
So they were practicing at the Middle School Wednesday and I had to pick her up and then they needed her Thursday so I had to reschedule her counseling appointment. Thankfully he Counselor was very understanding when I explained the situation. So Thursday Peter and I run through a drive thru for dinner for everyone and then once Brielle's practice was done she came out to the car to get some food and then we went in for Katherine's performances.
Friday comes around and she has to stay after school again for practice and turns out for the quartet also. Her fingers hurt so badly after that day along with her back. We brought her some food so she could eat in between performances.

Friday after everything was said and done Peter took Brielle out to a friends house in Indiana for a 'teen halloween party'. I felt bad that Katherine was not included so I talked to one of my friends who was having a party for kids over in another county and she invited Katherine so I drove her out there. Katherine had a wonderful time so I really am going to have to drive her out there more often.

Saturday is a bit of a blur. I finished the quilt I had been working on for Johanna's youngest (Evelynn).
We cleaned up the living room from all my sewing and then it was pretty much time to get ready for the adult Halloween Party but I did drive the girls down to the Public Library where they had a lock in after hours for about an hour and a half for a little teen party and then got the girls back home so they could babysit a friend's kiddo since this friend was going to the same adult Halloween party.
Horrible picture of me but most pictures are. Peter and I went as Peg and Al Bundy from Married with Children.




Sunday was a bit of a blur since we didn't get home until 4:30 am. We did carve pumpkins though.